Booker Prize: Dystopian Novel ‘Prophet Song’ Follows In Footsteps Of ‘The English Patient’ & ‘Life Of Pi’ To Win Prestigious Award

Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read
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Dystopian novel Prophet Song by Irish author Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize.

Set in Dublin, the story follows a family dealing with a terrifying new world in which democracy falls away.

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The prestigious book award has previously been won by novels including The English Patient, The Remains Of The Day, Life Of Pi, The White Tiger, and Wolf Hall, all of which have been adapted into successful movies or TV series.

Chair of Judges, Esi Edugyan, described Prophet Song, which was the bookmakers’ favorite to win the prize, as “soul-shattering and true,” adding that readers “will not soon forget its warnings.”

The subject matter rings especially true given the scenes of violence that have erupted in Dublin in recent days. Ireland’s police chief Drew Harris this weekend blamed the rioting and violence, which saw multiple people stabbed, on a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology”.

Writer Lynch said of the book: “Prophet Song is partly an attempt at radical empathy. I wanted to deepen the reader’s immersion to such a degree that by the end of the book, they would not just know, but feel this problem for themselves.”

Lynch receives £50,000 and was presented with his trophy by Shehan Karunatilaka, last year’s winner, at a ceremony held at Old Billingsgate, London. The event was hosted by Samira Ahmed and broadcast live as a special episode of BBC Radio 4 Front Row. It was also livestreamed in an hour-long online program, hosted by Jack Edwards on the Booker Prizes’ and Edwards’ own YouTube channels simultaneously.

Lynch is the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright. Prophet Song is published in the UK by Oneworld. The independent publisher previously won the prize two years running in 2015 and 2016, with Marlon James’ A Brief History Of Seven Killings and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.

The keynote speech at the award ceremony was delivered by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was released from prison in Tehran last year and described the ways in which books had saved her when she was in solitary confinement.

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